Yes, Gareth, that IS a downside. It's Luddite in its retro-thinking. IF I could get a train service that cost me no more than the petrol I use for work, IF I could get regular bus services which either served work purposes, shopping purposes, or the occasional jaunt out of town, I'd use reasonable alternatives. I never felt the need to have a car in my twenties - I walked to a bus stop and went to work on via bus. I owned a bike, I walked a lot. But there's perhaps a limit to how much a woman wants to ride the late-night buses full of leery male drunks of all ages, thanks. Ditto the Tube. Maybe you don't have far to go in any particular direction, maybe you don't like getting out and about much full stop. Maybe you have a cracking bus service which isn't parked in the bus garage by 10.30 at night? My car is available any time, to go anywhere, it doesn't go on strike, it doesn't fail to work if there are leaves on the road, it does about four journeys for the price of one via train. May I point out that trains run on electricity, and how do you think all those millions of miles of tracks' energy gets made? By solar panels?
As a woman, I like my own space, thanks. Maybe blokes don't mind sitting next to boozy, swearing, falling-about other blokes, or seeing a guy wanking off in front of them (one charming episode by train, I thank you), or standing for over an hour in a lurching carriage because there's no bloody room? When you're YOUR age, you can be smug about not having a car or being driven around in one (it's like inhaling someone else's pot - just because you didn't pay for it, doesn't mean you don't benefit from it). Oh, one other thing - I can do a huge amount of shopping at the same time as I buy petrol, go to work, all in one hit with my car. I can only carry SO many bags - maybe three - so I'd need three bus trips in order to stock up with the same amount of stuff the car can take for me. I can go to the local garden centre for both myself and other gardeners (sans cars) and get compost, soil, sand, tubs, tools, and plants in one go. Try making a garden by using a bike for transport. The alternative? The garden centre will deliver it by ... oh, yes, by a van, with a petrol engine! Farcical faux environmental claptrap.
